The Dave Bowman Show

On this episode of *Dave Does History*, we’re taking a bite out of something sweet, simple, and surprisingly historic—vanilla ice cream. July 23 marks National Vanilla Ice Cream Day, and while some folks might write it off as “plain,” this flavor has roots that stretch from the ancient empires of Mesoamerica to the elegant kitchens of Monticello. Along the way, it picked up a few secrets, stirred...

In this episode of *Dave Does History*, we step into the uneasy months before independence, when not everyone in the colonies was ready to break with the Crown. Some still believed King George III could be reasoned with, that he might rise above Parliament and become the kind of monarch Enlightenment thinkers dreamed of. John Dickinson’s **Olive Branch Petition** was a final appeal to that idea—a...

On this episode of *Dave Does History*, we go back to a moment when the Civil War still wore a fresh coat of naivety. July 21, 1861. The first major clash between North and South unfolds near a muddy Virginia stream called Bull Run. People thought this would be over quickly. They brought picnic baskets. They brought their kids. What they got instead was a violent wake-up call. Union troops, raw an...

This week on *What The Frock?*, Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod take on the so-called top story of the week—no, not international conflict or political scandal, but a kiss cam moment at a Coldplay concert. What begins as bemused commentary quickly unravels into a deeper exploration of how news is chosen, shaped, and sold. Who decides what matters? Why do nonsense stories rise while real headlines vanish?...

On this episode of *Dave Does History*, we go back to July 20, 1976, a day that lit the fuse on a lifetime passion for space. At just twelve years old, I watched as Viking 1 became the first American spacecraft to land safely on Mars. It wasn’t a movie. It wasn’t science fiction. It was real, and it was glorious. Viking wasn’t just a piece of hardware. It was a question on legs, asking the Red Pla...

Before sunrise on July 19, 1845, Lower Manhattan stirred under the weight of another blistering summer. Most of the city slept, unaware that a moment of carelessness or perhaps a faulty flame in a whale oil shop would turn calm into catastrophe. The fire began in the early hours inside J.L. Van Doren’s candle and whale oil business at 34 New Street. A single blaze, born in a building filled with s...

In 1290, King Edward I of England issued a royal decree that changed the course of English history and left a scar that lingered for centuries. Known as the Edict of Expulsion, this command forced the entire Jewish population—about 3,000 people—to leave the country. On this episode of *Dave Does History*, we’re digging into the political, economic, and religious pressures that led to one of mediev...

On this episode of Dave Does History, we take a sobering look at one of the most haunting nights of the 20th century: the brutal execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his entire family by Bolshevik revolutionaries on July 17, 1918. It wasn’t a battlefield. It wasn’t a courtroom. And it certainly wasn’t justice. It was a dark cellar, a lie about a photograph, and a hail of bullets that ended over 300 y...

On July 16, 1950, in the early chaos of the Korean War, a Catholic chaplain named Father Herman Felhoelter made a choice that would define the very idea of sacrifice. Surrounded by wounded American soldiers who could not be moved, he stayed behind as the enemy advanced. He knelt to pray over the dying and was gunned down mid-prayer, alongside the men he refused to leave. This is the story of the C...

This week on Dave Does History, we take you back to the morning that changed the world—April 19, 1775. It didn’t begin with a declaration. It began with whispers, riders, and a few dozen men standing on Lexington Green. These weren’t revolutionaries yet. They were farmers, tradesmen, and teenagers who had simply had enough. Dave brings a personal lens to the story, tracing the footsteps of his own...

In the summer of 1798, the United States faced one of its first real reckonings with liberty. The ink on the Constitution was barely dry, and the Bill of Rights, particularly that bold First Amendment, still had a new-car smell. But fear makes people do strange things. War fever with France was sweeping through the country, stoked by the XYZ Affair and the seizure of American ships. In that atmosp...

This week on What the Frock?, Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod wade into deep moral waters with a question that’s dividing the conservative world: Does anyone actually care about the Epstein files? After President Trump declared “nobody cares,” the frocked duo takes him to philosophical task, exploring justice, trust, and the obligation to truth, even when it’s inconvenient. Along the way, they tackle eve...

In the summer of 1787, while America’s greatest political minds were huddled in Philadelphia crafting the Constitution, another crucial act of nation-building was quietly unfolding in New York. The Confederation Congress, often remembered more for its failures than its triumphs, passed the Northwest Ordinance—one of the most influential pieces of legislation in American history. This wasn’t just a...

On July 12, 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt rolled into Pueblo, Colorado aboard his special train, stood on the rear platform, and delivered a brief but memorable speech. The weather was pleasant, the crowd was cheerful, and FDR, ever the showman, tossed out a line that still echoes today: “We want to make democracy work.” It sounded noble. It sounded patriotic. But what did he *mean* by it?...

On this episode of *Dave Does History*, we set our sights on one of the toughest warships to ever sail under the American flag—the USS *Nevada*. Launched in 1914 and sunk, finally, in 1948, the *Nevada* wasn’t just a battleship. She was a brawler. She took a torpedo at Pearl Harbor, shook off six bombs, stood back up, and got back into the fight. She bombarded beaches from Normandy to Okinawa and...

Today on Dave Does History, we’re cracking open one of the dustier chapters of the American presidency—one that begins not with fireworks and fanfare, but with cherries and spoiled milk. When President Zachary Taylor died unexpectedly on July 9, 1850, the nation turned to a man most Americans barely knew: Vice President Millard Fillmore. What followed was a presidency built on compromise, cautious...

July 9, 1755. The forests of western Pennsylvania echoed with musket fire, panic, and the cries of wounded men as the mighty British Empire came face to face with a kind of war it didn’t understand. At the center of it all was a proud general who wouldn’t listen, an outnumbered enemy who knew the terrain, and a young Virginian named George Washington who refused to break. The Battle of the Mononga...

On July 8, 1898, one of the Wild West’s most infamous con men met his end not in a saloon or a courtroom, but on a weathered dock at the edge of Skagway, Alaska. Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith had made a career out of charming suckers and swindling prospectors, running everything from fake lotteries to rigged card games. He called himself a protector of order, but the people of Skagway saw throu...

On this episode of *Dave Does History*, we’re heading back to the summer of 1520, deep into the heart of Mesoamerica, where a broken band of Spanish conquistadors found themselves surrounded by thousands of Aztec warriors on the dusty plains of Otumba. Hernán Cortés was battered, outnumbered, and on the brink of ruin. What happened next wasn’t a miracle—it was desperation, steel nerves, and a reck...

So, was John Paul Jones a hero made by war, or was the war at sea made by Jones? The final judgment, as ever, lies with history. And Jones, more than most, knew where history gets written. Not in marble halls or courtroom ledgers, but on the open water, where wind and gunpowder do the talking, and names are carved into memory by the pounding of the sea. John Paul Jones carved his. And it hasn’t wa...

In the summer of 1775, a strange kind of tension blanketed the American colonies. Blood had already been spilled at Lexington and Concord. Boston was under siege. The Continental Congress had raised an army and chosen George Washington to lead it. But amid the smoke and gunpowder, there was still something deeper smoldering. Hope. Not for victory, not for revolution, but for peace. A very specific...

It was July 4th, 1863, and the stars and stripes flew again over Vicksburg, Mississippi. But this wasn’t a celebration. There were no parades, no fireworks, no songs of freedom. In fact, for 81 years, Vicksburg would skip Independence Day altogether. That morning, under a blazing Southern sun, a grim procession of exhausted Confederate soldiers stacked their rifles, furled their flags, and surrend...

Fifty years after the Battle of Gettysburg turned quiet Pennsylvania fields into a brutal crossroads of war, something extraordinary happened. The veterans came back. Not to fight. Not to argue. But to remember. To stand together on the same ridges and fields where they had once tried to kill each other, and shake hands instead. More than 53,000 of them, Union and Confederate, answered the call fo...

Caesar Rodney was no ordinary man. He was a physician, a farmer, and a military officer who had served in the Delaware Assembly. He was also one of the most ardent supporters of independence, but on the day of the vote, he was in Delaware, a 70-mile journey away from Philadelphia. Rodney had been in poor health and had been unable to attend the Continental Congress for some time. But on the day of...

In this episode of *Dave Does History*, we travel back to 1774 and examine the moment when the British Crown pushed too far and the American colonies finally stood together. Host Dave Bowman joins *Bill Mick Live* to explore the Intolerable Acts, a series of harsh laws meant to punish Massachusetts but which instead united the colonies in defiance. From the closure of Boston’s port to the often-ov...